Brenda Valentine's Bowhunting School

Marti Davis

On Wednesday, September 26, 2001, six ladies met each other for the first time at Brenda Valentine's first annual ladies' bow hunting school in northwest Tennessee. We were all there with one common goal in mind... to become better hunters. If we happened to harvest a deer while we were there, that would just be a bonus!

We all arrived that afternoon from across the United States. Mary Beth flew in from Texas and Pam flew in from Pennsylvania. They met up with one another at the Nashville airport, got a rental car and drove the rest of the way. Pam said it wasn't too hard to find Mary Beth in the airport; she was the only lady carrying a bow case. Becky drove from her home in Kentucky, Bona drove in from Indiana, Linda started her drive from Minnesota on Tuesday, and I drove from my home in Willard, Missouri.

When we got to Brenda's, there was a stack of hunting supplies for us. She had received these from her generous sponsors. We each received Stalker Lite camo shirt and pants from Red Head/Bass Pro shops, Savora broadheads from Archers Ammo, and a Bug Out suit from Bug-Out Outdoorwear. We also received an EZ-Grunter "Plus" call from Knight & Hale Game Calls, scent products from Wildlife Research Center, and other products from Browning Corporation, Blue Ridge Targets, Game Tracker, Gorilla Tree Stands, Ol'man Tree stands and Realtree. Pam works for Bowhunter magazine, and she brought everyone some magazines and decals. Linda has her own company and she brought Fire Tacks trail markers for all of us.

After we all got settled in we sat down, drank some lemonade and visited for a while. Then we loaded up and headed to town to purchase our hunting licenses. Wouldn't you know it; along the way we saw some deer in a grassy area right at an intersection.

We got to the store, went back to the hunting department and lined up to get our tags. Pam stepped up to the counter and the clerk asked her what she needed. Pam told her we all needed an out-of-state archery license. The clerk then asked her what we were doing. She told her we were here for a bow hunting school and we were going to hunt deer. That's when the clerk said the wrong thing to a group of ladies who had traveled several miles to come to Tennessee to hunt. She said, "I don't believe in hunting; if it doesn't come in a can, I don't eat it."

Brenda was in another part of the store when this happened and when she rejoined us, we told her what had happened. Needless to say, before we left the store we found a manager and explained to him what had occurred. He couldn't believe what we were telling him and was very apologetic.

Everyone loaded back up and we headed back to camp where Leissa, Brenda's sister, our cook for the weekend, had supper waiting for us. Barney, Brenda's husband, had a roaring campfire burning when we got back. We sat around the fire, ate supper, and learned about each other and how we all ended up at this school.

Thursday and Friday Brenda taught us as much as she could pack into two days. We learned about bow tuning, shooting form, scouting, using tree stands, tree stand safety and game care, to name a few of the subjects. We also received one-on-one shooting instruction from an archery target coach, and an archery shop owner showed us how to work on our bows.

On Friday night we drew numbers to see which stand we would be hunting from Saturday morning. Brenda had showed us most of the stands earlier in the day and they all looked really promising. In anticipation of the next morning's hunt we all went to bed early.

We woke up early Saturday morning ready to go hunting. After a light breakfast we all headed to our stands. I sat in my stand from dark until about 10:00 a.m. I saw several does from this stand, but, unfortunately I didn't have a shot at any of them.

All of us met back at the house and talked about the morning's hunts. No one got a deer, but most of us saw deer from our stands and some even had shots at some deer. That afternoon's hunt I chose to sit the same stand; the other gals did some stand swapping. I didn't see anything from my stand that evening, but as I was walking out at dark I saw a couple of does. I also heard a deer blow in the woods as I was walking out.

On Sunday morning Brenda put me in a different stand. I was in a ladder stand in a huge tree with branches on both sides of me. It was just like sitting in a big easy chair. Just after daylight a few does came in behind me to a pond. I was turned around watching them and waiting for a shot when a little buck made his way towards the does and the pond. He kept feeding around and after what seemed like forever, he finally came right under my tree and started heading towards the cut cornfield in front of my stand. I slowly got turned around and in position for a shot. I knew where the grass ended and the cornfield started was a 20-yard shot. As he reached the edge of the cornfield, he turned and was quartering away. I crouched down below a limb, put my 20-yard pin on his vitals and let the arrow fly. As he took off I saw the arrow stuck in him and it looked like it was placed perfectly. I tried to look through the limbs as he ran across the cornfield and thought I saw him drop about 50 yards out in the field. I was pretty sure he was down because there were a doe and fawn out in the cornfield looking back towards him, and they took a few steps that way, and then turned and ran off the other direction.

Although it was a long wait, I waited 30 minutes and finally climbed down. When I walked out to the cornfield I looked towards where I thought he should be and there he was. He was a 5-point buck. He won't make any of the record books, but he's a trophy in my record book: my first buck with my bow.

Brenda and Mary Beth were in a tree across the field and they weren't real sure what was going on until they saw me dragging my deer to the edge of the field. Not long after I got the deer to the edge, they showed up in the truck. Brenda got out and told me they wasn't sure if I had got a deer until they saw me dragging him out. Then she got her camera out and started taking all sort of pictures. After the photo session, we loaded him up and headed back to the house.

One by one the other gals made their way back to the house. Unfortunately, no one else had gotten anything. After getting everyone's hunting report, we got to work on the deer. With Brenda's help I had my first hands-on experience of field dressing. After we got him field dressed, we could see that my arrow was placed just right. It went in the right lung and angled through his vitals to the left shoulder.

Sunday evening we all went back out for our last hunting session. I hunted from a different stand this evening. This stand was just inside the edge of some thick timber overlooking several trails and right behind me was a soybean field. I had a doe and fawn come in from the bean field. As they made their way through the timber, the doe was out of range and there was too much brush between us. As they got just out of view, I used my fawn bleat call. They circled back and came into view, but no shot. I tried it again as they got out of view and she came back again, but this time she gave me a shot at 25 yards. I looked one last time and thought I had a clear shot. I let the arrow fly and about 20 yards out my arrow cut a limb and flew right past the doe. Oh well; you can't get one every time. I climbed down to find my arrow before it got too dark, and while I was getting it, I could hear that doe blowing at me.

All the gals made their way back to the house and when everyone showed up, Becky came back with a spike buck. This was her first deer with her bow. We talked at supper about our hunts, how great these last few days were, and how much we all learned.

This was a truly great experience and a great chance to make new friendships with other lady hunters. I now feel like every time I go hunting I learn something.

To any of you gals out there that are interested in bow hunting, I highly recommend Brenda's school. You can read more about Brenda and her school at her website, www.brendavalentine.com or you can e-mail her at breval@wk.net.